Gaming, Movies, Gadget, and Tech Reviews & Opinions

Super Heroic

The GoodLots of fun, over 150 heroes and villains, a brick by brick love letter to the Marvel Universe.

The BadPretty high price point compared to most games in this series. Some puzzles may be frustrating for some. Multiplayer split screen mode is very difficult to navigate compared to previous non-split screen games.

Tons of content in the best Lego game to-date.

TT Games’ Lego series doesn’t really need any introduction, just about every major entertainment property has been LEGOified at this point. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Lego brand offers an engaging, albeit formulaic, experience with tons of content and challenges for young and old alike. The formula ain’t broke, so TT Games has no reason to fix it. That said, when we heard that Marvel was getting the Lego treatment, we thought “Meh… Marvel is cool but another Lego game? Whatever.”

We were wrong, this game is not only awesome in its own right but we can tell you flat out that it’s the best Lego game to date.

There are a three huge things that really set this game apart for us: overall tone, attention to detail and sheer amount of content.

“Hey Johnny, did I ever tell you about the time I punched Hitler in the face?”

Like Lego Batman 2: DC Heroes, the story is fully acted out in dialogue rather than warbled out in gibberish through cut scenes. The heroes and villains talk, quip, threaten and act their way through the story as it evolves and it makes a huge difference. It’s funny, it’s goofy and sometimes it’s silly but it makes for an awesome experience. Spider-Man sounds like a teenager, Iron-Man is a cocky wise-ass and Captain America is the archetypical good guy. The characters are true to who we think they should be. It helps build a world that doesn’t take itself too seriously and has fun simply being a game about super heroes.

“But if I kill all the golfers, they’re gonna lock me up and throw away the key…”

Building on the overall fun tone of the game, the world itself is extremely well-detailed and realized. We’re not simply talking about the graphics and character models, which are great, but the environments and game mechanics really set the stage for the characters to shine in. A lot of the challenges in the Lego games involve you walking around the environments and figuring out which blocks to smash or move, so having little easter eggs and Marvel jokes to discover as you go adds to the fun. Another cool thing that this game does is it allows for heroes to draw on special abilities as you play through levels. To name a few, Spidey has his signature “spider-sense” to give you hints, Captain America can throw his shield like a boomerang and Hulk can lift huge chunks of brick and throw them around. This subtle tweak in the Lego formula made it fun to unlock new characters.

Here are just a handful of the unlockable characters in the game.

Finally, there is really just a ton of content in this game. There are 250 levels to play through and around 150 heroes and villians to unlock. Most of the major heroes and villians are on the roster and you also have the option to create your own hero. If your favorite superhero didn’t make the cut, there are also two DLC content packs available which add about 8 characters each and some other stuff as well. We hope that more downloadable content will be available in the future.

Verdict – Super Heroic!

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised and really impressed with this game. It refines a formula for a series that was already working and sets the bar high for any new Lego games to follow it. As is the case with all Lego games, some puzzles may be a little tricky for younger players.

We played this game on the X-Box 360, and found that the split screen multi-player mode was pretty confusing compared to previous Lego games where both players shared a screen. Keep this in mind if your a parent with kids who like to play these games together, because it may be an issue for them.

We also think it’s worth mentioning that we thought that it was priced a bit higher than most Lego games at launch. Considering that this game is geared towards a younger audience, we’d have loved to see the priced knocked down by about 10 bucks so that more parents and kids can get their hands on it.

In any case, we wholeheartedly recommend this game and it’d be a great gift for the holidays for any super hero fan. Excelsior!

Dan Sheehan is a writer, illustrator, animator, movie buff, comic fan, gamer and all around geek advocate. In addition to being a managing editor at Geekingitout.com, he also knows a lot about pizza and is really good at talking like Bane.

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